Tsugumi Project (vol. 1) - A Manga Review
Tsugumi Project is a post-apocalyptic manga by Ippatu about a man on a mission to find a secret weapon somewhere in the ruins of a Tokyo devastated by nuclear war. This is a review of the first volume of the manga.
This originally started as an entry in last month's media roundup post, but I realized as I was writing that what was supposed to be a quick summary of my thoughts was turning into a full-on review. Not one to pass up on an opportunity, I figured I'd spin this off into its own dedicated post; something I think I'll do more in the future, whenever I have more to say about something than would make sense to include in the roundup posts.
Anyway, Tsugumi Project. I hadn't heard about it before—nor was I familiar with Ippatu, the mangaka—but I spotted the first volume on the "staff recommendations" shelf of my local nerdy bookstore (shoutout to SF-Bokhandeln in Malmö). The premise sounded like my jam, and the art looked intriguing, so I picked it up.
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The premise is straightforward; the protagonist, Leon, is a prisoner sent by The Government™ to find a secret weapon called "Tsugumi" in the ruins of Tokyo, 200 years after it was nuked by foreign powers in order to stop that very weapon from being let loose upon the world. He's sent together with a whole squad of prisoners, although they don't last long; the plane carrying them crashes into Tokyo Bay, leaving Leon as the (apparent) only survivor.
Waking up from the crash, Leon has to get his bearings, find shelter, avoid being eaten by monsters... standard apocalypse survival fare. He meets a girl with bird legs and her giant bear/tiger friend, and things get crazier from there. Honestly, the narrative didn't exactly "wow" me in this first volume, but it serves its purpose, and I came away wanting to know what happens next in the story. Job done.
Speaking of the narrative, the writing in Tsugumi Project is decidedly sparse. The ruins of Tokyo don't hold many conversation partners for Leon, and while he engages in plenty of the typical manga protagonist monologuing, a significant amount of the manga's pages are entirely devoid of talking.
This did lead to me reading through the whole volume in about 30 minutes; while I think it's reductive to define "value" based on the ratio between price and time spent enjoying the work, half an hour of reading for 159 SEK per volume doesn't exactly scream "good deal".
At the same time, I appreciate the merit in keeping the talking to a minimum, as it leaves more room for the art to shine. And shine it does.
The art in this manga is damn good, y'all. I'm not artistic enough to critique it in any great detail, but nearly every page has at least one panel where I went "damn". The character and creature designs are enough to impress on their own—as you can hopefully see despite my amateurish photography work above—but the environments are, in my opinion, fantastic. Ippatu (the mangaka) has clearly put a lot of effort into rendering the ruins of Tokyo in great detail. The skyscrapers tower darkly over Leon, and the whole city has this sinister, dangerous feeling. Exactly what you'd want out of a grim post-apocalyptic survival story.
In a weird way, I kind of regret buying the physical volume—something I very rarely do to begin with, as I mostly read manga on my phone—and it's actually because the art is so good. It's full of these gorgeous two-page spreads, all of which get a bit mangled when you can't lay the book out flat. With that in mind, I might recommend buying the volumes digitally so that you can fully enjoy these.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this first volume of Tsugumi Project. The pacing is fast, the world and characters are interesting, and the art is gorgeous. I'll almost certainly pick up the rest of the volumes in the future; there are only seven in total, and the series finished in 2023. If you thought anything I wrote here sounded interesting—or if you just want to look at some gorgeous, moody, post-apocalyptic art—I think you should get hold of a copy of the first volume and give it a read.